Spirulina Smoothie Bowls

The lack of time pressure to get up on study leave (well, apart from on exam days) has left me loads of time to mess about making breakfasts. I’ve finally got back into the way of experimenting with smoothie bowls (you might remember me mentioning my love of them here and here), so today I’m back with another smoothie bowl recipe.

For this one, I tried adding spirulina powder for a little extra nutrition. In case you didn’t know, spirulina is a green-blue algae and is a hugely popular superfood due to all of its health benefits (you can easily buy it online or in most health food stores). Spirulina is 65% protein, making this a brilliant source of protein for vegans and vegetarians. It also contains key fatty acids, chlorophyll, micronutrients, antioxidants, etc etc.

Although the thought of eating algae is likely pretty off-putting, I promise it has no flavour whatsoever in this smoothie bowl! So here’s the recipe…

Ingredients (serves 2):

half an avocado

a large handful spinach

2 bananas, chopped and frozen overnight

2 heaped tablespoons thick soya yoghurt

200ml soya milk (or any type of milk)

1 tablespoon spirulina powder

a large handful of frozen mango

a large handful of frozen pineapple

Optional Toppings:

kiwi and mango (or any fresh fruit you fancy)

chia seeds

granola

Method:

The night before, chop the bananas into slices and freeze.

In a blender, blitz the frozen bananas with the soya milk.

Add the avocado, spinach and soya yoghurt before blitzing again.

Add the frozen mango and pineapple, blend, and then add spirulina powder.

Blend until completely smooth.

Divide between two bowls and top with any ingredients of your choice (if you need time to prep the toppings then simply leave the smoothie bowls in the fridge whilst you do this). Serve, and feel free to add extra toppings as you progress through the bowl (I usually end up having double the amount of toppings as is shown in my photos).

As usual, this recipe is really flexible so sub-in or sub-out whatever you choose. Although spirulina powder has so many benefits, it can be ridiculously expensive to buy so feel free to swap it for hemp, chia, or flax seeds, or just omit it if you’re unlikely to use spirulina ever again.

And once again I’ve used my beautiful coconut bowls to serve these (I’d definitely recommend buying them - I absolutely love mine!). Good luck if you make these smoothie bowls, and I’d love to hear if you’ve had any other experiences with spirulina or have any tasty recipes using it that you can share.